Pathfinder - Oracle Archetypes Breakdown

Disclaimer

I will use content from the core rules, but will intentionally omit any content not published
on the official Pathfinder SRD due to the
unmanageable volume of non-SRD content, and the wildly varying quality of non-SRD content.
If you would like me to write handbooks for specific content not published on the official
SRD, please email me and I will consider it on a case-by-case
basis. I will use the color coding scheme which has become common among Pathfinder build
handbooks. Also note that many colored items are also links to the Paizo SRD.

Red: Bad, useless options, or options which are extremely situational.

Orange: OK options, or useful options that only apply in rare circumstances

Green: Good options.

Blue: Fantastic options, often essential to the function of your character.

Temporary Note: Pathfinder Unchained and Occult Adventures were
both recently added to the SRD. I'm excited to explore them, and I am actively working
on adding their contents to my collection of handbooks. I appreciate your patience while
I make these changes.

Archetypes

Oracle Archetypes often supplement or partially replace the abilities and spells
provided by Oracle Mysteries, which can be a great way to cherry-pick the abilities
you want from Mysteries which might have several bad options.

Dual-Cursed Oracle takes a second curse (without the benefits), gives up bonus class
skills, and trades in three Mystery bonus spells for two extra Revelations and access
to two extremely powerful revelations which allow you to make and force rerolls. The
penalties can be fairly gentle if you plan for them, and the new Revelations are
absolutely amazing.

Oracle's Curse: Taking another curse hurts, but a couple
of the curses are fairly gentle.

Bonus Spells: None of the spell options are hugely
powerful, but they're not completely terrible either.

ill omen: It's really hard to time this
spell. Forcing enemies to reroll might make them more likely to fail a crucial
saving throw, or they might just burn the reroll on an attack. There is no saving
throw, which is fantastic for really tough enemies, but be sure not to use this
on targets with Spellcraft.

oracle's burden: Because you have two
curses, this is twice as versatile as it is for most Oracles. Of course, it's also
much more useful if your curse is one of the more debilitating options.

bestow curse: Fantastic debuff.

Revelations: Two additional revelations, and the two new
revelations made available are absolutely incredible.

Misfortune (Ex): Imagine this scenario: You are a
straight caster Oracle. Your Charisma is insanely high, and your spell DCs are nearly
impossible to overcome. You cast Dominate Person or something on an enemy, and he
rolls a natural 20, his only change of saving against your spell. You use Misfortune,
force him to reroll, and watch as he proceeds to murder his former allies. You can
use this as many times per day as you want, and there is almost no reason to not
use it when an enemy passes a saving throw. On top of that, you can use this on
your allies, so you can force them to reroll failed saves which would otherwise
kill them. This is also a great option if you are planning to class dip into Oracle
for whatever reason becuase it doesn't depend on your level in any way.

Enlightened Philosopher resembles the Lore Mystery in many ways. Because this
archetype depends on both Intelligence and Charisma, I would never use this for combat
caster Oracle. However, for a straight caster Oracle it allows you to be the party's
Librarian in addition to the capabilities provided by the Oracle's spells.

Alignment: Not a problem in most parties.

Class Skills: ALL knowledge skills. Linguistics can be
mostly replaced with the Tongues spell, but opening up knowledge skills allows you to
serve as your party's Librarian.

Bonus Spells: Enlightened Philosopher replaces every
bonus spell except the one you gain at 2nd level. If your Mystery's spell list
is bad, this may be a good choice.

owl's wisdom: The best you can really
get from Owl's Wisdom is a +2 to Will saves.

water walk: Situational.

discern lies: Situational.

true seeing: A bit expensive to cast,
but extremely powerful.

wind walk: Great long distance travel
spell.

ethereal jaunt: Great as an infiltration
or escape mechanism.

moment of prescience: Fantastic and very
versatile.

astral projection: Excellent way to
"safely" travel to other planes.

Revelations: Mental Acuity is fantastic. Enlightened
Philosopher gives you access to all knowledge skills, so this gets you extra skill
ranks to fill out your skills and a bigger intelligence bonus to all of them.

Mental Acuity (Ex): A permanent bonus to Intelligence.
Because this is an inherent bonus it won't stack with Wish, but by the time you
could get wish you will already have a +4 bonus.

Final Revelation: Charisma is a dump stat, so you're not
likely to get anything added to your saves, but the list of immunities is nice. You
can take 20 on all knowledge checks, which means at this point that you basically
know everything, and you get a nice list of immunities. Being reincarnated is super
cool, but probably won't come up within the scope of the campaign.

The Planar Oracle is a logical complement to the elemental Mysteries, but not a
very good one.

Bonus Spells: Most of the spells are situational, and
they are all on the Cleric/Oracle spell list already.

endure elements: Very situational.

elemental speech: Very situational, and it
becomes obsolete two levels later.

tongues: Excellent for communicating with
whatever weird creatures you meat in your travels.

planar adaptation: Situational, but
required if you want to go to other planes with crazy climates like the plane of
fire.

plane shift: Situational.

mass planar adaptation: See Planar
Adaptation.

shadow walk: Excellent movement option,
and not on the Cleric/Oracle spell list.

etherealness: Excellent for infiltration
or escape.

gate: A potent combination of summoning
and transportation.

Revelations: Planar resistance is okay, but not as good
as the elemental resistance Revelations available to the elemental Mysteries.

Planar Resistance (Su): Energy resistance
is nice, but this isn't a lot, and it doesn't scale well. Energy Resistance can
totally replace this Revelation. You don't get immunity at level 17 like the
elemental Mysteries' revelations give you, but you get it at level 20 with Planar
Oracle's Final Revelation.

.

Final Revelation: Being an outsider is nice because it
makes you immune to effects which target humanoids, but at 20th level enemies have
plenty of options which don't care if you're a humanoid. Immunity to your element is
also nice, but you get it 3 levels after the elemental Mysteries.

Possessed is a reasonably good archetype. The abilities and effects are vaguely
related to being possessed, but not in the "I'm a vesel for an otherwordly being" way.
More of the "slightly spooky shit happens around me and I find it just as unsettling
as you do" sort of way. If your Mystery has a bad spell list, Possessed replaces most
of it with some decent options, but otherwise leaves the Mystery in place.

Oracle's Curse: Haunted and Tongues are two of the least
harmful curses, but it's still annoying to need to take two curses.

Bonus Spells: Some very good options, some very bad
ones.

ventriloquism: Very situational, and easily
replaced by Ghost Sound. Not on the Cleric/Oracle spell list. Normally you don't
get the first bonus spell until 2nd level, so I assume that this is a typo.

spider climb: Somewhat situational, but
you can bring this into play very easily, and it's not on the Cleric/Oracle spell
list.

screech: Nice way to get your allies
some free attacks, but the range is small and it still allow a will save before
your allies have to roll to hit. If you have someone in your party with Combat
Reflexes in reach of multiple enemies, this can be great for them. Not on the
Cleric/Oracle spell list.

sleepwalk: Very situational.

telekinesis: Fantastically useful. Not
on the Cleric/Oracle spell list.

animate objects: Excellent way to get
some temporary minions without summoning, and it scales with level by allowing
you to animate more/better objects.

divine vessel: Divine Power three levels
better. Better bonuses, bigger buffs, and a whole bunch of resistances based on
your alignment. Because it's a Transmutation effect, but not a polymorph effect,
you can combine it with effects like Enlarge Person. Exclusive to Oracles.

Revelations: Two Minds is an excellent defence against
Enchantment effects.

Two Minds (Su): Enchantment effects are
among the most dangerous in the game, and the ability to reroll a Will save will
save your life, even if it's only once per day.

Inspiration is a cool mechanic, but the Psychic Searcher's poor list of available
Investigator Talents brings down the whole archetype. With no good uses for Inspiration,
there is little reason to take this archetype.

Bonus Spells: Almost all of the options are situational
Divinations. Oracles are spontaneous casters, so you will always have these spells
available when they come up, but they also take up a spell known which could be used
for something more useful.

Augury: Useful if you roll well
and your DM is okay with vaguely alluding to the future.

locate object: You need to be reasonably
close to the target to find it, so you can't just cast Locate Object and locate the
Lich's phylactery, but this can be very good for finding items lost among debris
and such.

divination: Situational.

find the path: Situational.

discern location: Situational.

foresight: Fantastic buff. Insight bonuses
are rare and expensive, and a 10 minute per level duration will get you a few
hours of protection. Not on the Cleric spell list.

Inspiration (Ex): Inspiration is a cool mechanic, and
you get to use it for free with a lot of very important skills.

Psychic Talent (Su): Access to Investigator Talents offers
you a lot of new options, but the list of talents available is very short and very
few of the talents are worth considering.

amazing inspiration: This only means an average
of 1 higher on your inspiration die rolls, but combines very well with Tenacious
Inspiration.

eidetic recollection: Not only are you good at
Knowledge, you are consistently good at Knowledge. Of course you can add
Inspiration to Knowledge rolls for free, but reliability is nice.

empathy: Situational.

inspired alertness: Just spend a skill rank on each
Knowledge skill.

item lore: Very situational, and you probably have
someone in the party who can do it, or you can pay some NPC to cast Identify for
you.

perceptive tracking: Very situational.

rogue talent (hard to fool): Rerolls are great, but
this is very situational.

tenacious inspiration: 1d6 has an average of 3.5.
Rolling twice and taking the highest increases that to 4.7. Taking Amazing Inspiration
to boost your Inspiration die to d8's will increase your average to 5.8. If you really
depend on your Inspiration die, Amazing and Tenacious Inspiration are a good investment.

The Seer, like you might expect, is a master of divinations. Forewarned is forearmed.
If you like to use lots of divinations to make the GM expose the plot ahead of time,
the Seer is an excellent choice.

Bonus Spells: Lots of excellent divinations.

detect thoughts: Situational.

clairaudience/clairvoyance: Excellent
scouting divination.

scrying: Extremely powerful, though
not always useful.

true seeing: A bit expensive to cast,
but extremely powerful.

legend lore: Cast this spell, turn
to the GM, and say "so tell me about your backstory". This spell is situational,
but when you're missing huge portions of the plot, it's amazingly powerful.

greater scrying: See scrying.

vision: How often do you think you
are going to need to cast Legend Lore in combat? With the exception of the
possible days/weeks casting times for Legend Lore, you really shouldn't need this.

foresight: With a minimum 3 hour
duration, this should last a long time. Insight bonuses to AC and saves are
uncommon, so this should be a nice buff.

Revelations: Two excellent divination Revelations.

Natural Divination (Ex): The skill check
and initiative options are great, but the saving throw bonus won't be significant
because your Charisma probably isn't very good.

Gift of Prophecy (Su): Commune is a great
spell despite the 500gp cost. Make sure to talk to your GM to make sure that they
are okay giving you this much information on a daily basis.

Bonded Spirit allows you to get some free spells known which you can change on a
daily basis, as well as some interesting Spirit powers. This adds some nice versatility
and the ability to change your spell list on a daily basis.

Class Skills: Knowledge skills are fantastic. With a bit
of Intelligence, you can serve as the party's Librarian.

Bonded Spirit (Su): Most of the spirit Hexes are bad,
so don't feel too sad that Bonded Spirit adds a weird dependence on Charisma for some
reason. The big draws here are the spell list and the spirit abilities. For help
selecting a wandering spirit, see my
Sham Spirits
Breakdown.

Stargazer is a subset of the Heavens Mystery. It is okay. It has a few good options,
but nothing really exciting.

Class Skills: Knowledge (Nature) and Perception are both
at least a few ranks if you can't afford to maximize them.

Knowledge (nature): One of the more important
Knowledge skills.

Perception (Wis): The most rolled skill in the game,
and it's dependent on your primary ability score.

Survival: Situational.

Bonus Spells: Several excellent ways to handle invisible
creatures, but that's really all that this spell list does well.

faerie fire: A fantastic low level way to
handle invisibility and concealment effects. Because it allows no saving throw, it
remains useful at all levels. The minutes per level duration is also surprisingly
good for a first level spell.

glitterdust: Despite a rounds per level
duration, this is at least as good as Faerie Fire. The blinding effect can blind
groups of enemies, and there is no save to resist the invisibility-negating effect.

guiding star: Situational.

wandering star motes: Great option for
disabling enemies, and for removing concealment. If it falls off of the target it
will jump to another, so hopefully this will get some mileage in groups of enemies.

meteor swarm: Very flashy, but not as
powerful as it should be for a 9th-level spell.

Revelations: A couple of Revelations from the Heavens
Mystery. Guiding Star is bad, but Star Chart can be very useful.

Guiding Star (Su): Very situational. Most
adventuring tends to happen during the day, and much of it takes place inside.

Star Chart (Ex): Commune is a great spell
despite the 500gp cost. Make sure to talk to your GM to make sure that they are
okay giving you this much information on a daily basis.